Roben Farzad, a senior writer at BusinessWeek, outlines the American automobile industry’s 2009 prospects and discusses the effect of falling gas prices.

They discuss the shoe-throwing incident in Iraq and its international importance, the worsening situation in Gaza and the potential for action in the Zimbabwe crisis.

Mark Mazzetti of The New York Times speaks with Martin Savidge about the nature of these previously undisclosed attacks, missions that were called off and how the Obama administration will likely handle similar terror targets.

Read our Blogwatch post on foreign coverage: International journalists swarm U.S. for election.

Susan Caskie, international editor of The Week, speaks with Martin Savidge about lukewarm or negative coverage of Barack Obama’s victory in Iraq and Afghanistan, how foreign newspapers are characterizing George W. Bush and quirky global headlines about the election.

VIDEO: Peter Finn of The Washington Post was at Guantanamo in the past month and speaks about developments at the prison.

VIDEO: Aziz Huq, director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Project at New York University, speaks about the legal and political implications of keeping Guantánamo open.

The Bush administration announced that it will not close the prison at Guantánamo Bay and has not examined proposals for transferring the detainees elsewhere. On Tuesday, officials dropped war crime charges against five detainees.

Blogger Spencer Ackerman calls the continuation of the prison “ludicrous” and argues it is illegal in the wake of Boumediene v. Bush, a ruling which limited the ability to keep the prison off of American soil.

H. Candace Gorman, a blogger and lawyer who represents two Guantánamo detainees pro bono, rejects the argument that detainees should be sent to other countries rather than the U.S. because their long captivity has made them hostile towards America.

The American Security Project’s “Flash Point” blog criticizes the lack of exploration into alternative plans.

Both U.S. presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, have called for the closure of Guantánamo in the past. The next administration will face legal and logistical challenges in relocating the 250 prisoners.

Human Rights First provides a blueprint on “How to Close Guantánamo” [PDF] for the next administration.

Colonel Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at Guantánamo, writes at Georgetown University’s “Security Law” blog about the failures of the prison and outlines a course for Obama or McCain to prosecute war crimes.

An American blogger at “Malbatron” writes that the issue of Guantánamo is the key factor in shaping his decision in the upcoming election.

For more on U.S. prisons abroad, watch Torturing Democracy, airing on PBS stations across the nation.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user The Beast under a Creative Commons license.

Sharyn O’Halloran, professor of political science at Columbia University, speaks with Martin Savidge about the difficulty of coordinating international banking efforts, pointing out that many international agreements have not worked in the past.

Marcus Mabry, international business editor of The New York Times, speaks with Martin Savidge about the global market meltdown that started in Asia and rolled over to Europe. He says European ministers will try to come up with plan for the EU to take the crisis on together despite disagreement. Some countries favor a bailout like that recently approved by U.S. President Bush, while others dislike the idea of a pan-European plan.

Already, Germany has responded by taking steps to prop up its banks and reassure depositors. Their move to guarantee deposits in personal savings and checking accounts has put pressure on other EU nations to follow suit in order to prevent money from fleeing their banks for German banks.

Jeffrey White of The Christian Science Monitor speaks to Martin Savidge from Berlin, where consumers are uneasy about the safety of their money. He says that Germany responded to changes implemented by Ireland, and that other countries have made similar guarantees to depositors.

Marcus Mabry of The New York Times and Jeffrey White of The Christian Science Monitor discuss the attempt by European countries to coordinate efforts in responding to the financial crisis. /files/2008/10/th_1006_mabry.jpg /files/2008/10/th_1006_mabry.jpg ]]> http://worldfocus.org/blog/2008/10/06/eu-struggles-to-unite-against-bank-crisis/1656/feed/